Flat-panel displays have been actively developed in these years, and in particular, liquid crystal displays have been drawing attention because these displays have advantages of light weight, thin profile, and low power consumption, for example. Also, in these days, mainly portable electronic apparatuses such as smartphones and tablet PCs have been desired to exhibit high definition and high viewing angle characteristics from the viewpoint of improving display qualities, and to exhibit even lower power consumption so as to lengthen the battery life. For example, a super-high definition has been desired which is from 200 ppi to higher than 300 ppi. In order to also achieve low power consumption, an even higher aperture ratio of pixels has been desired.
A liquid crystal display is provided with a liquid crystal layer sealed between a pair of substrates. In order to maintain the thickness of the liquid crystal layer (what is called a cell gap) to a uniform value, Patent Literature 1, for example, discloses a technique of providing pillar-shaped spacers between the pair of substrates. It is important to maintain a uniform thickness of the liquid crystal layer so as not to decrease the display qualities.
For example, Patent Literature 2 discloses, as a technique of maintaining the thickness of the liquid crystal layer at a constant value, a display panel including a first substrate; a second substrate arranged to face the first substrate; a display medium layer arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate; and a display region formed by multiple pixels. In the display panel, the first substrate is provided with an interlayer insulating film with holes open on the second substrate side for the individual pixels; the second substrate is provided with multiple pillar-shaped spacers that define the thickness of the display medium layer; the pillar-shaped spacers are formed to have a maximum width in a cross section parallel to the second substrate which is greater than the width of the openings of the holes in at least one direction parallel to the second substrate; and various positional relations are provided for the pillar-shaped spacers and the holes arranged closest to the respective individual pillar-shaped spacers.
Also, Patent Literature 3, for example, discloses a liquid crystal display that includes a pair of substrates attached to one another with pillar-shaped spacers in between, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the substrates, and provides display using multiple pixels. In the liquid crystal display, the pixels include the pillar-shaped spacers and contact holes, and the pillar-shaped spacers include regions overlapping the contact holes and regions not overlapping the contact holes in a cross section parallel to the substrates.